Nepal: Surkhet Air Strip for Indian Air Force, Target Tibet

How will China react to the fresh agreement made in between the Government of Nepal and India that allows the Southern neighbor, China’s arch rival, to construct an Air Base for the Indian Air Force in Surkhet?

The Jana Disha Daily, the Maoists’ Party mouth piece dated December 7, 2009, claims that in the consultative meeting held between the representatives of the Government of India and Nepal, December 4-7, 2009, Kathmandu, the Nepali side has provided a clear go-ahead signal to India to construct the Air-Strip for the Indian Air Force.

It was earlier reported that India has already built air-strips deep inside Bhutan and an air-strip in Surkhet of Nepal will serve the Indian security interests in a much more enhanced manner, say experts. As per the agreement the government of Nepal will have to allocate some ten hectares of lands in the area to construct the Air Strip.

It was reported that during the visit of Nepal’s Defense Minister Bidya Devi Bhandari to New Delhi in July 2009, Mrs. Bhandari had requested India to construct the Air-Strip for Nepal Army.

“The very idea of constructing an air belt in Surkhet is basically not a Nepali brain. Instead, it is the Indian mind to build an air strip right inside Nepal from where the Indian regime, should an imaginary war with China becomes a reality by 2012 as claimed by Bharat Verma, an Indian defense analyst, could pounce upon Tibet that adjoins the Nepalese border”, claim Nepal’s analysts.

Surkhet is close to the tri-junction, Kalapani, where China meets India in Nepali territory. Nepal’s defense analysts claim that the Indian Army can strike the heartland in Tibet as and when India and China go to war. How China reacts to this "benevolent" Nepal, gesture made in favor of India will have to be watched.ASIAN DEFENCE: How will China react to Surkhet Air Strip for Indian Air Force

Kathmandu: India has agreed to resume military cooperation with Nepal, which was suspended following the 2005 takeover of power by former King Gyanendra, besides providing training to Nepalese security personnel as part of efforts to step up defence cooperation.

Nepal and India also agreed to share intelligence and to cooperate on constructing an airbase for the Nepalese army in the western part of the country, at the three-day joint-secretary level meeting that concluded here yesterday.

During the meeting, India agreed in principle, to resume non-lethal military supplies to Nepal as per her request, a defence ministry official said. India had suspended military cooperation after former King Gyanendra assumed absolute power and dissolved the multi-party government in February 2005.

During the Nepal-India Bilateral Consultative Group meeting held at the defence ministry here, the Indian delegation was led by Joint Secretary at the ministry of external affairs, Satish Mehata, while Nepal's delegation was led by his Nepalese counterpart Arun Prasad Dhital.

India also agreed to provide training to Nepalese security personnel to upgrade their capabilities and to share intelligence for improving security, the official said.

The delegations discussed the matters of mutual interest and agreed on cooperation to construct a Nepal Army airbase in Surkhet in western Nepal, a foreign ministry statement said.

The Nepalese have always been closer to India culturally than they have been to the Chinese. i always felt it was a mistake to end military cooperation with Nepal, and am glad that we have restarted. we should help the Nepalese arm and mordenize their forces. a security agreement on the lines of Bhutan may also be a prudent thing for consideration if the Nepalese so permit it.

Surkhet is a district in the Bheri Zone of the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. Birendranagar is the administrative headquarter of Surkhet as well as the whole Mid-Western Development Region. Surkhet District lies within the Surkhet Valley, which is about 50 km² in size, and is approximately 400 kilometers west of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu.

The temperature ranges from 5°C to 38°C from summer to winter.

Demographics
Before its own identity as an independent district, it used to be in the district of Dailekh. Surkhet is hub to remote districts like Dailekh, Kaalikot, Jumla, Mugu, Jajarkot, and Salyan. Recently because of insurgency, many people have migrated to Surkhet from these districts.

The majority of the people are Brahmin and Chettris, and there are minorities which are Newar, Magar, Tharu, Sunaar, and Kaami. Eighty percent of the people are Hindu. Others are Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims.

Infrastructure
Surkhet is accessible by air service and roads from various parts of the country. Ratna highway links it to the rest of Nepal. Karnali highway, recently constructed and being black topped, will link Surkhet to the remote Western region Karnali. An air service connects Surkhet to Kathmandu, Nepalgunj, Jumla and several other districts.

There are three colleges which provide education up to Master's level. There are many 10+2 which teach science, management, humanities, rural development, education etc. There are various institutions which provide technical education like veterinary, overseer, computer assistant, assistant health worker, ANM, etc.

A university is proposed to be constructed in surkhet valley which will provide cheap and quality education to people in this region.

It has a regional hospital which provides basic medication for its people. The main occupation is farming.

There are many NGOs and INGOs working in this area for development. The INF Surkhet Programme is one of the oldest organizations working in the health and development sector. There are other INGOs like GTZ, DFID, DANIDA, US Aid.

Tourism
Tourist attractions are places like Kakrebihar, Bulbule, Deutibajai, Mangalgadhi, Gothikanda, Ghantaghar, Bheri river and many other places with religious as well as historic values. Kakrebihar is the remains of an old Buddhist Monastery (palace), which is in the list of national heritage sites in Nepal. Bheri river is a well known destination for rafting. Birendranagar is a beautiful city which is among very few cities in Nepal built under a master plan. People have access to a good network of roads as compared to other mid-sized cities in Nepal which makes transportation easy. But due to lack of proper attention from the government and donor agencies in looking after this beautiful heritage city, there has not been sufficient effort to make it look more beautiful and establish it as a popular tourist destination.

The Nepalese have always been closer to India culturally than they have been to the Chinese. i always felt it was a mistake to end military cooperation with Nepal, and am glad that we have restarted. we should help the Nepalese arm and mordenize their forces. a security agreement on the lines of Bhutan may also be a prudent thing for consideration if the Nepalese so permit it.

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The Chinese have made considerable inroads with the Nepalese. It will be hard for India to cozy up again after snubbing them.

Kathmandu: In a move that may raise concerns in India, China has pledged a slew of financial assistance to Nepal, including military aid worth Rs100 million for the supply of "non-lethal" security equipments and training the Nepalese Army.

China has also pledged military assistance worth Rs100 million. The military assistance will include non-lethal security equipments, logistics support, training for Army officials and communications equipment, according to The Kathmandu Post.

Foreign ministry sources said that Chinese side is positive regarding Nepal's request and agreed to provide phase-wise assistance for the multi-million dollar project.

China has allotted about Rs20 million for construction of the consulate building. The existing building that houses the consulate is old and needs to be replaced by a new one, an official said.

The announcement was made during bilateral talks held by visiting deputy executive vice-chair of Tibet Autonomous Region, Hao Peng with Nepalese authorities on Wednesday.

China has also agreed to provide Rs30.6 million as food assistance annually from the current year.

Kathmandu: In a move that may raise concerns in India, China has pledged a slew of financial assistance to Nepal, including military aid worth Rs100 million for the supply of "non-lethal" security equipments and training the Nepalese Army.

China has also pledged military assistance worth Rs100 million. The military assistance will include non-lethal security equipments, logistics support, training for Army officials and communications equipment, according to The Kathmandu Post.

Foreign ministry sources said that Chinese side is positive regarding Nepal's request and agreed to provide phase-wise assistance for the multi-million dollar project.

China has allotted about Rs20 million for construction of the consulate building. The existing building that houses the consulate is old and needs to be replaced by a new one, an official said.

The announcement was made during bilateral talks held by visiting deputy executive vice-chair of Tibet Autonomous Region, Hao Peng with Nepalese authorities on Wednesday.

China has also agreed to provide Rs30.6 million as food assistance annually from the current year.

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ROFLchairmanMAO 100 million Nepalese rupees is US $1.3M. Do you seriously think that amount of money can serve any anti-India strategy, let alone "considerable inroads"? 26 million rupees for construction is around $0.27 M, and 30.6M rupees food-assistance is $0.4 M.

Whatever APC support Nepal is getting from China is merely to help its own law-and-order. Not 'fight' India. Hence the "non-lethal" part. Non-lethal ammunation / tear-gas, etc., are riot-control supplies.

Nepali expatriates in India, I'm pretty sure, send back a lot more money home to Nepal than the tokenistic pocket-chage China is throwing at Nepal.

Here comes Koji with his perennial $hit again. Stay out of this thread 'Koji' or do some research b4 u come a d!ck-measurin'.

Nepal has always been within India's strategic ambit. There are 5 million Nepalise in India (out of a total population of 22 million) that earn their bread and butter at our keep and repatriate it to their families of 3 or 4, virtually covering the entire population. Not only do we sell them arms to fight maoist varmint, we've built their airport in Kathmandu, the Kosi Dam, and various other irrigation projects. Your 100 million Nepali Rs. [LMAO] is a piddly nothing compared to the virtual monopoly in arms sales we've enjoyed to them since 1963. The only reason they've bought arms from you is because we imposed an arms embargo on them in 2005 after the snot king Gyanendra took over, that was in effect until very recently, and just lifted on Dec. 7th, 2009. I won't be surprised to hear some recalcitrance on the part of Nepal after this development.

India should engage with Nepal in all spheres. It is in our interest that Nepal remains strong and united. We should help them with all our resources to kick the shit out of the Maosits. These fellows are already linking up with our Maosit groups.

However the news item is credited to the Maosit mouthpiece, i will not give much importance to this article. This could be a red herring to built up anti India sentiment.

This place is surrounded by mountains, ideal for a forward operating airbase. Enemy aircrafts & cruise missiles will have a tough time evading radars & SAMs pitched on top of the mountains. Missile range against low flying attackers is anyways limited by terrain ie valleys and the like, and the 25 km Akash is certainly enough. Furthermore, aircraft which are counting on terrain for a masked approach may face destruction on being suddenly confronted by well sited, camouflaged SAM batteries. Later a few Barak-8ER too could be deployed.

i think we are reading too much into it. IAF airbase in NEPAL is somewhat comparable to Chinese involvement in Hambantota port in Srilanka.
just as the lankans can't antogonise india by alowing the chinese to use it militarily, nepal also can't allow india to use the airstrip for offensive purposes.
both these countries are way too paranoid about both china and india, and will keep them in good books without any room for suspicion.

Pretty worried and suspicious Chinese establishment has sent another Military Delegation to Nepal.

The Chinese delegation has come close on the heels of Nepal’s Defense Minister Mrs. Bidya Devi Bhandari’s official request made to India to construct Air-Strip for Nepal Army in Surkhet district, that claim security experts, could be time permitting, used by the Indian Air Force to target Tibet.

Much to the dismay of the Chinese delegation that landed in Kathmandu December 14, 2009, claim sources at the Ministry of Defense in Kathmandu, India has already asked Nepal government to allow it to construct one more similar Air-Strip in the Eastern plains of Nepal presumably to target Tibet again from the Nepali soil.

How can Nepal deny?

The Chinese delegation that landed in Kathmandu on Tuesday is led by Major Jia Jioning who is the deputy director of the Foreign Relation cell at the Ministry of Defense, China.

Reports claim that the delegation will enquire about the purpose of the air-strips to be constructed by India in Nepal.